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HARRISBURG - Free rides on the Pennsylvania Turnpike given to some 7,000 state Turnpike Commission employees, contractors and vendors - and 30 state officials - have cost $7 million over four years.

With a toll hike looming Jan. 6, the state's top fiscal watchdog said now is the time for the commission to curb the practice.

Auditor General Jack Wagner released a draft performance audit Monday outlining the generous toll-free travel policies between January 2007 and August 2011. The free rides were available through photo ID cards issued for employees, nonphoto cards for contractors and vendors and special E-ZPass transponders for employees and others.

Wagner said he hopes turnpike officials will rein in the long-standing free travel policies before the toll hike takes effect.

"For 7,000 plus individuals, there will not be a toll increase because of free passes issued by the Turnpike," he said.

The turnpike commission will implement a two-tier toll hike effective at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 6. It involves a 10 percent increase for cash-paying customers and two percent increase for those who pay with E-ZPass. The current tolls have been in place since January 2011 when the two-tier system was introduced. The commission is encouraging greater E-ZPass use with the discount toll rate.

Toll revenue goes to meet a commitment that the turnpike commission provide $450 million in annual revenue for state-owned roads and bridges under a 2007 state law. Wagner said this commitment is pushing the turnpike commission into billions of dollars of debt.

"It is unacceptable for turnpike executives to ask the motoring public to foot the bill for this increased borrowing in the form of annual toll increases while they shield themselves from financial pain by giving themselves free travel," Wagner said.

Turnpike officials have just seen the report and will respond at a later date, said commission spokesman Carl Defebo Jr.

Acknowledging that some of the free travel can be justified, Wagner said it's hard to know how much exactly because turnpike officials were unable to comply with his requests to separate personal travel from work-related travel.

The audit found that 2,132 employees used employee ID badges to travel toll-free resulting in an estimated $1.4 million in lost revenue, 3,828 non-employees, including contractors, used non-employee ID cards resulting in an estimated $4.2 million in lost revenue and about 1,600 individuals including employees, state police and state officials used E-ZPass transponders resulting in 2.1 million in lost revenue.

Wagner said he's not questioning the free passes used by the governor's office and top Transportation Department officials or emergency crews responding to accidents, but added the commission needs to monitor free travel better.

The free travel policies date back to the 1970s, but the number of individuals with access have increased greatly since 1997, Wagner said. Employees should be able to travel for free only going to and from work and for work-related duties, he added.

Wagner plans to issue a final audit report before he leaves office Jan. 15.

rswift@timesshamrock.com

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